USMLEMed is a clinical reasoning trainer for USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK. You work through board-style vignettes spanning cardiology, pulmonology, GI, renal, endocrine, infectious disease, pharmacology, lab interpretation and anatomy. Instead of memorizing facts in isolation, you learn to recognize clinical patterns, reason through differentials, and pick the best answer under pressure.
USMLEMed is built primarily for medical students preparing for USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK, plus residents refreshing core clinical reasoning. Nursing, PA, physiotherapy and rehab students also use it, and movement professionals have a separate Yoga Edition module.
Each case comes with up to 4 hints that progressively guide your reasoning. You can answer immediately for maximum points, or unlock hints one at a time. Each hint reduces your maximum score: 0 hints = 100%, 1 hint = 75%, 2 hints = 50%, 3 hints = 25%, 4 hints = 10%. This system rewards independent thinking while ensuring you always have support available.
Base points depend on case difficulty: Easy = 100 points, Medium = 150 points, Hard = 200 points. Your final score is the base multiplied by the hint multiplier. Incorrect answers always receive 0 points. Your total score accumulates across all cases and is shown on your dashboard.
Free users get access to 54 clinical cases (2 per category), the full progressive hint system, complete reasoning explanations after each case, and progress tracking with scoring. No credit card is required.
Pro Pass unlocks all 480 clinical cases across every clinical category, plus Test Day Simulation pacing, sequential item sets, research abstracts and drug ads, and custom exam blocks with saved-block progress tracking. The Yoga Edition is a separate module, purchased independently.
Yes - it's a Pro Pass feature. In the exam builder you hand-pick up to 40 cases from the library (filtered by category, difficulty or completion state), then start the block immediately or save it under a name for later. You can also let the builder assemble a block automatically, weighted towards the categories where your accuracy is weakest.
An exam block runs on one shared countdown at 90 seconds per question - the real Step 1 / Step 2 CK pace of 40 questions in 60 minutes. You can move between questions freely and flag items for review before submitting. The deadline is wall-clock based, so refreshing or closing the tab never returns spent time, and when the clock hits zero the block submits with unanswered cases scored zero.
Yes. Every run of a saved block is logged with accuracy, points earned, unanswered count and time used. The block shows your latest accuracy, the change against your previous attempt and your best attempt so far, so a run of 60% then 70% then 50% reads clearly as negative movement rather than a vague feeling. The same trend panel appears on the post-block report.
Accuracy by category and difficulty, unaided accuracy (cases solved with zero hints) alongside overall accuracy, hint consumption, timed-block accuracy, and cases lost to the clock. The dashboard adds a readiness score weighting accuracy 50%, library coverage 25% and timed performance 25%, plus a day streak and a weekly goal you set yourself.
No. USMLEMed complements your review resources. It bridges the gap between knowing facts and applying them to a vignette, so it works best alongside your primary review book, flashcards and question bank.
We cover 27+ categories including cardiology, pulmonology, GI and hepatology, renal and acid-base, endocrine, infectious disease, pharmacology mechanisms, lab and diagnostic interpretation, neurology and nerve injuries, red flags and serious pathology, differential diagnosis chains, and pediatric presentations. Yoga-specific anatomy cases live in the separate Yoga Edition.
Yes. USMLEMed is fully responsive and works on any modern browser - desktop, tablet, or phone. There's no app to install; just log in from your browser.
Our cases are authored by clinicians and medical education professionals. The learning methodology itself is grounded in cognitive science research including active recall, scaffolded learning, desirable difficulty, and case-based learning. Read more on our Science page.
You can manage or cancel your subscription at any time from your Profile page. Your Premium access continues until the end of your current billing period.
We offer competitive pricing designed with students in mind. Our yearly plan works out to less than the cost of a coffee per week. Check our pricing section for current rates.
After submitting your answer, you see whether you were correct, the points earned, the complete diagnostic reasoning chain (all hints revealed), an explanation of why the correct answer is right, common mistakes students make, and clinical pearls for deeper understanding.
Currently, your first attempt on each case is scored and tracked. We're working on a review mode that will let you revisit cases for practice without affecting your score.